Oxford Open Doors weekend

Darren has a full programme of events for this year's Open Doors weekend. For the last few years we have always been away and missed out on this opportunity to visit lots of places that are not open to the public, but this year we got it right.

We started with Christchurch College - this was extremely popular and Daz booked tickets as soon as they came out. 

We have walked and run past the outside of the college, but this is our first time inside. We started at the spectacular cathedral and were met and blessed by the new Arch Deacon. Shame about the clashing footwear. 

We also met the real Chief Verger and admired the amazing stained glass windows. This one dates from 2023 and shows St Francis, patron saint of the environment and animals. 

Of course, we couldn't miss the Dining Hall where parts of the Harry Potter films were shot. 

After a quick break we moved on to Queen's College with its incredible front gate and statue topped frontage. This college is much smaller than Christchurch while and very grand, it seemed a more homely size. 

A famous student was Rowan Atkinson who did his PhD here and donated money to pay for new chairs in the lovely dining hall. 

Unfortunately I learnt that fact after we took our photos and I don't think that we can see the chairs in this picture. 

Just across the road is University College, the oldest college in Oxford and was founded in 1249.

Every college seems to have its own church, dining hall and quadrangle, and they are all very impressive and very different to each other. Also, they all have incredible stained glass windows in the churches. However, what struck me most in University College's church, was the very unattractive figures of Adam and Eve with the apple tree. 

I nearly forgot, all of the colleges also have fancy libraries, and this one looked very much like a church. 

We asked one of the student volunteers about it and apparently in the 1840's a very rich donor had a statue made of his grandfather Lord Eldon and his brother Lord Stowell. He wanted to donate it to the college, but they said that they had nowhere to put it, so he also then donated enough money to build a library to house the statue. What a result. 

Apparently, the reason that the library resembles a church is because the architect that they chose usually designed churches, so perhaps that was the only style that he could draw. 

Finally, and getting tired by now, our last college of the day was Magdalen. 

Another huge, extremely wealthy college that is next to the river and the punting station. 

Finally, finally, last night we went to an authentic Flamenco show. The performers were all from Seville and the dancer had the most beautiful costumes. 

Amersfoort to Hilversum

 It's very damp and stormy this morning, and the weather forecast says that it will get worse as the day wears on.

Shelving plans for a scenic cycle with lots of detours, we instead decided on a quick dash from one hotel to the next one.

It was only 20 kilometres and we were lucky and arrived in Hilversum only a little bit damp.

We were far too early to check in so we left our bikes and bags and set off to explore the town.

We had only walked a few metres before the rain started to come down. We considered returning to the hotel to sit in the lobby, but then thought no, it's not too bad, let's carry on.

A couple of minutes later the rain turned torrential and we ran towards a brightly coloured shop whose door was open.

We leapt inside, initially thinking that it was a coffee shop as there was a big menu on the wall. Then we looked more closely and saw that it looked more like a bank with a counter and glass barriers that went up to the ceiling.

I said that it might be a vape shop, but a tattooed smiling lady behind the counter said that it was a weed shop. Surprised, we stood there dripping wet and looking around us.

She must have heard our first comments about thinking it was a coffee shop, and realising that we were escaping the rain, she pointed to a coffee machine in the corner and told us to help ourselves.

We stayed a while and examined the merchandise and then didn't want to outstay our welcome so headed back into the deluge.

I ran along the street to what looked another promising shop, but this one turned out to be an opticians.

Standing under their awning I looked across the street and could see the top of another awning. Darren stayed where he was and I ran across the road, and it was third time lucky.

I ran inside, phoned Darren who eventually turned up and we waited out the storm in a giant pub with it's own brewery.

Amersfoort

 We are now in Amersfoort which is a beautiful city that it says on-line, is only 33 minutes from Amsterdam on the fast train. However, it is really peaceful and absolutely beautiful.

It became a city in 1259 when it was a very popular trading city at the junction of two rivers. 

We liked it a lot and wandered around looking at the beautiful old houses, and being surprised at the lack of fellow tourists.

It is also famous for it's Koppelport, the only combined land and river gate still in existence in the Netherlands.

Amersfoort was also the birthplace of Piet Mondrian in 1872 and his house is now a lovely museum.

When he was young he painted landscapes and flowers and these paintings sold quite well. However as he got older and he had moved to Paris he began experimenting with his now very famous and individual style.

The museum does not have any of his modern paintings, but it has a life size mock up of his studio in New York where he moved to just a few years before his death in 1944.

It was very cleverly done and brought it all to life. He was was fascinated with colour and shape and his whole apartment was decorated with large coloured squares and shapes, and he moved them around constantly.

After his death and the apartment was emptied the movers found thousands of tiny pin holes in all of the walls from where he used to hang his squares.

His signature style did not sell well in his lifetime and he used to paint and sell pictures of flowers to earn a living, but just before he died his modern paintings began to be popular.

His signature style has now been copied thousands of times, including famously in the Tour de France by the team La Vie Claire and Bernard Hainault.

I bought a glasses case and Daz bought a pen shaped like a tube of paint.

In the evening we went out for dinner in the main square and left just as they were setting up a big screen to watch a Finnish film with Dutch subtitles.

We instinctively knew it just wasn't for us.

Dutch Water Defence Lines

 I had never heard of the Dutch Water Defence Lines until I picked up a brochure a couple of days ago. But, it's totally amazing and I have been obsessed with it ever since.

It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and is 200 kilometres long, one to five kilometres wide with 96 forts, six fortified towns and two castles!!

We found ourselves at the bottom of it whilst in Leerdam, and we cycled 43 kilometres along it to Utrecht.

What is it? I hear you shouting and why is it so enormous?

Basically, between 1815 and 1940 the Dutch built a system of forts and waterworks, which countless sluices, dykes and earth mounds. The idea was to keep enemies at bay, particularly around Amsterdam, by opening the sluices and quickly flooding the whole, or sections of the blue area on the map.

Our route today was from Leerdam that is right at the bottom of the map and up to Utrecht. From there we would take a short train ride to our destination of Amersfoort.

We set off from Leerdam and soon reached a raft to take us across the water.

The raft has a wire attached to the other bank and you pull yourself across. Of course at first I pushed instead of pulled so just stayed where I was.

Then we went back up onto the raised roads and paths that stretch for miles and they, if necessary, hold the waters back.

Our next stop was the Doorgezaagde Bunker known as bunker number 599. It was built, along with hundreds of others in 1940.

Made of reinforced concrete this Bunker was sawn through with a diamond drill to show the inside workings. It took four weeks of drilling and a pathway now leads down to the water.

Posts out in the water show how high the water would have risen if the area was flooded.

It's been taken over by the birds now though so not very pleasant to walk along.

Back on the bike we made it to Fort Everdingen. There is very little to see of the forts above ground and that was done purposely so that potential Invaders would not be aware of this fantastic defense system.

We went down a little track and found the fort.

There was also a more modern building and the lights were on. Excited about the prospect of getting a coffee we went inside to find ourselves in a brewery and a bar. Even more excited we fancied a beer, but the owner said that they didn't open until Thursday so we were out of luck.

Back on the road, and on to another ferry.

Most of the forts have been repurposed as cafés, and we then found a nice looking quiet one with people sitting on benches outside drinking. I headed towards the door to get our drinks but no such luck. This fort was actually an office and the people were office workers on their lunch break.

They were very nice though, and also wished that their office was a bar.

Cycling along we did eventually find a fort that was a café and sat outside in the sunshine eating, or is it drinking, affogatos. (Never had one before.)

Unfortunately we stayed too long and we reached Utrecht just as a storm was arriving.

We whizzed through, just stopping long enough to snap a photo or two. We were heading for Utrecht North station and as we passed Utrecht Central station it started to pour with rain.

We could have caught the train from the centre but we had already bought our tickets online so we got soaked on the last part of the journey.

Onto our train and to the surprisingly beautiful town of Amersfoort.